Elevated.

[Torrence Paige]

The mall wasn't usually Tori's first choice of place to go to whenever she had free time. There was always her book shop, the park or the nearby beach. She was more of an outdoor person than an indoor one, unless the indoor place was her apartment. She didn't like places that were too packed with people. Sometimes it was just too noisy for her. But today, she had no choice because she had to look for new clothes for a party she will attend next week. She usually just wore whatever she had in her closet, but this party was a pretty big deal because her friend was turning the big 3-0. She wanted to dress up for her friend.

She walked towards the front sliding doors but her way was cut by another woman who seemed to be in a hurry, so Tori had to step back and move slower to give way.

This is why I don't like malls. People are always rushing.

When she got inside, she looked around the first floor, trying to look for an ideal store to enter first. Eventually, she figured she'd be better off starting at the highest floor since most people seemed to hang out at the ground floor for most of the time. She maneuvered her way to the elevators, trying not to step on people's toes, or trying not to get stepped on. Finally, reaching one that was almost to the ground floor, she waited in line behind one other woman. They seemed to be the only people waiting to get on.

[Ellen Banks]

Really, Ellen doubted why Vesper thought it was necessary for her to have therapy sessions...well she had the best kind of therapy available to her.


Retail. That was all she needed.


So whenever Ellen was feeling stressed or just a little on the low side, Ellen would simply travel to the local mail and shop all of her troubles away. Pushing everyone else out of the way as she did, after all, Ellen was a woman of means and therefore it was only natural for her business to seem a smidge more important than everyone else and that wasn’t arrogance on her part. Or at the very least she didn’t think so. It was simple logic.


She had more money. Therefore she was so much more important.


With bags of shopping in her hands, she barely paid attention to the woman beside her as she sauntered into the elevator and waited calmly for her to press the button “Fifth floor” she said calmly already checking her phone


Well, SHE wasn’t going to do it. She just got her nails done

[Torrence Paige]

The elevator doors finally opened, and Tori was preparing to get on when she was forced to stop and take a step back as another woman hurriedly got into the elevator before her.

Jeez, no rush, lady, she thought to herself, keeping from saying it out loud. It wouldn't do anyone any good for her to get into a confrontation. She hated those situations, after all.

Tori finally got into the car and the door closed as she pressed '7' for the topmost floor.

"Fifth floor", she heard the other woman say.

There were only the two of them in the car so she assumed the woman was talking to her.

"Excuse me?", she asked, not sure if she was indeed the one the woman was talking to, or if maybe, just maybe, she was just whispering to herself.